Outside the tent, Shin'un's squad stood facing the white-haired Anbu.
"You have ten minutes to prepare. Assemble at the departure point in ten minutes."
"I'll explain the details of the mission before we leave."
After saying this, the white-haired Anbu left with the Body Flicker Technique.
Shin'un watched the white-haired Anbu leave, thinking silently to himself.
"Shin'un? What's wrong?"
Beside him, Shiina Kō saw Shin'un standing there, staring blankly in the direction the white-haired Anbu had left, and asked.
Shiina Kō's voice snapped Shin'un out of his thoughts, and he immediately came to his senses.
"Nothing. I was just spacing out."
"Let's go. We only have ten minutes to prepare. Hurry to logistics to replace some equipment. We're leaving soon."
With that, Shin'un departed first with the Body Flicker Technique, with Shiina Kō and Yūichi following behind.
Shin'un led the way, still thinking about the white-haired Anbu.
There weren't many white-haired ninja in the shinobi world. It was currently the Second Shinobi World War, and when it came to white hair, aside from Shin'un himself, two other people came to mind.
Together with the Hokage half-sleeve on the white-haired Anbu ninja's arm and the short blade on his back, all the clues pointed squarely to one person.
Hatake Sakumo, Kakashi Hatake's father, nicknamed the Konoha White Fang!
I never thought I'd be meeting the Konoha White Fang so soon...
With that thought, Shin'un kept running toward the logistics tent where mission supplies were issued.
Seven minutes later, fully prepared, Shin'un arrived at the meeting point agreed upon with the white-haired Anbu.
Three Anbu squads could already be seen waiting there.
Shin'un gave a slight nod in greeting to the masked Anbu ninja.
He swept his gaze around but didn't see the Anbu ninja he suspected was Hatake Sakumo, so he simply led his squad off to one side and sat down to wait.
"Shin'un, what do you think this mission will be like?"
"They already have three Anbu squads, yet they're still pulling ninja from the regular forces to help?"
Yūichi moved beside Shin'un and pointed at the Anbu ninja hidden in the shadows of the woods as he spoke.
Shin'un turned to glance at the three Anbu squads on standby.
Since he had brought his squad here, apart from responding to their greeting, the Anbu of all three squads had remained hidden in the shadows without a sound.
An air of bloodshed clung to them as they stood in silence, and each wore a visibly worn mask.
Those details alone showed that they were all battle-hardened Anbu elites.
Having reached that conclusion, Shin'un turned to look at Yūichi, who was crouching behind him with narrowed eyes.
"Maybe it's because this mission is particularly difficult."
With that, the corners of Shin'un's mouth lifted into a smile.
"Aren't you always complaining that our recent missions haven't been challenging?"
"This mission will probably satisfy you."
Yūichi nodded in agreement at those words, beginning to feel a little excited.
"Right! I hope there's a suitable opponent this time!"
With that, Yūichi walked aside on his own, took out a kunai, and began playing with it.
Watching Yūichi leave, Shin'un looked at the Anbu ninja again.
In truth, Shin'un was also rather curious about this mission.
Generally, as the Hokage's direct subordinates, the Anbu had many responsibilities.
Assassinating or protecting important figures, hunting down missing-nin, developing an intelligence network spanning the shinobi world, carrying out missions ordinary ninja couldn't complete...
Overall, most Anbu missions had to be kept secret.
Only veteran ninja with extensive combat experience and no questionable points in their past could join the Anbu and become a force trusted by the Hokage.
For that reason, although Konoha's Anbu ninja had been trounced by all sorts of ninja in the original story, making their abilities seem wildly inflated...
Shin'un, who had worked with the Anbu over the past three years, understood the reality.
Anbu ninja had to pass several rounds of screening to join, so their willpower, loyalty to Konoha, individual strength, mission experience... all their qualities should have been top-notch.
Three veteran Anbu squads...
For a confidential mission rather than battlefield combat, a force like this was already a full wartime complement.
If a team like this still needed support drawn from other ninja, then this mission really did seem likely to be difficult.
Thinking this over, Shin'un shook his head.
Looks like this mission won't be easy...
A minute later, rather than the person in charge of the mission, another jonin squad arrived as Shin'un waited.
Shin'un stood up and greeted them, only learning what had happened after asking.
It turned out that after he left, Orochimaru had summoned another squad that had just returned yesterday and added them to this Anbu mission.
Exactly ten minutes later, the white-haired Anbu ninja suspected of being Hatake Sakumo appeared in the clearing on time.
Shin'un had just stood up when he heard the jonin from the squad that had arrived later exclaim.
"Lord White Fang!"
The white-haired Anbu ninja reacted calmly to this, as though he had long expected to be recognized.
He gave the jonin a slight nod in greeting, then walked over to the Anbu squads and spoke in a low voice.
Taking this opportunity, Shin'un walked over to the jonin.
"Excuse me, did you say... that he's the Konoha White Fang?"
The jonin still seemed excited about going on a mission with the Konoha White Fang. When Shin'un asked, he immediately answered:
"Yes, that's right. That white-haired Anbu is Lord White Fang!"
"He's the strongest in Konoha... the strongest after Lord Hokage!"
Seeing the reverence on the jonin's face, Shin'un asked no further questions, merely feeling inwardly shocked by the Konoha White Fang's prestige within Konoha.
A jonin who would have been considered a pillar in a small ninja village was actually this excited just to be going on a mission with White Fang.
How strange.
A few minutes later.
Hatake Sakumo led the Anbu ninja out of the shadows, called over the two squads, including Shin'un's, and began explaining the details of the mission.
"First, I need to make it clear that what I'm about to say is top secret within Konoha. I hope you will maintain strict confidentiality after this mission."
"Any problems?"
Although Hatake Sakumo looked at everyone as he said this, both Shin'un and the jonin beside him knew perfectly well that he was addressing them.
The two exchanged a glance, then nodded to Hatake Sakumo to indicate that they would keep it secret.
Then Hatake Sakumo said in satisfaction:
"Good!"
"Yesterday, the Anbu received a letter requesting aid from our spy inside Sunagakure."
"The letter stated that her identity was about to be exposed, and she hoped we could arrange for people to meet her at a designated location in the Land of Wind."
"Since this mission requires entering the Land of Wind to extract our operative, it is extremely difficult."
"So, after careful consideration by Lord Hokage, this mission was handed over to me."
Having said that, Hatake Sakumo looked at Shin'un and the others.
"For reasons of secrecy, the Anbu ninja will handle contact with the operative. You don't need to know her specific name, gender, identity, or history. You only need to know what she looks like."
Hatake Sakumo took a photograph from his chest and handed it to Shin'un, indicating that he should pass it around.
Shin'un took the photograph and looked at the woman wearing round-framed glasses, her smile full of warmth, and inexplicably found her familiar.